1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus and a vehicle control method for controlling a vehicle provided with a pre-crash brake apparatus and an automatic cruise apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An apparatus that automatically applies a brake to a vehicle is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-351992 (JP-A-2004-351992). When a sensor detects an obstacle during the operation for backing up the vehicle, this apparatus automatically applies a brake to the vehicle with a braking force which corresponds to the vehicle speed and the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle.
However, if the above-mentioned technology is applied to a vehicle provided with an intelligent parking assist apparatus that automatically parks the vehicle, there is a possibility that an appropriate braking operation is not performed for the following reason. Even if an obstacle is detected behind the vehicle and a braking force is automatically applied to the vehicle, the intelligent parking assist apparatus is activated independently of the automatic braking operation.